This reminds me of a passage from Camus' The Rebel where he talks about how it wasn't enough for the nazis to kill everyone in the town. They had to redirect the river and change other geography because they didn't want anyone in the future to even begin to think there was once a town or community that lived there.

"Since these women’s families and hometowns were wiped out, I did not expect to find much. But one of the revelations of my efforts so far is how much is out there, how much remains to be unearthed. It makes me think about how attempts to obliterate people, culture, hope and history may succeed in the short run, but often ultimately fail."